Just in time for Halloween, I want to share with you a tradition regarding one of my favorite bands, Type O Negative. Every October I listen to their entire discography from front to back. I just completed this ritual while on tour with Teen Mortgage supporting Destroy Boys with Chokecherry. For the first time I was joined by a listening partner, Buddy Hacher, our tour manager, the drummer for Greenbeard and fellow Type O enthusiast  Below are my personal rankings, thoughts and trivia for each album.  

6. SLOW DEEP AND HARD (1991) – THE ORIGIN OF FECES (1992)

Type O Negative arrived at Roadrunner Records off the heels of Peter Steele’s existing contract for his defunct crossover thrash outfit, Carnivore. Slow Deep and Hard feels like a prequel containing more similar sonic DNA and lyricism to Carnivore than later Type O offerings though dialed back considerably. I would never start anyone on these albums but include them for completist sake. However, visiting them does provide context for the provocative themes, dark sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humor that would continue through their discography. It’s worth visiting the full articles discussing the shitstorm of controversy they stirred up during this time, especially in countries where sarcasm was lost in translation. Much of the album was written in response to Steele’s real life experience and corresponding emotions with discovering his girlfriend of 10 years had been cheating on him. Origin of Feces is essentially what Evil Dead 2 is to Evil Dead, containing mostly versions of previously released songs in the format of a faux live record before a hostile crowd, which why I include them together. Fun fact, the original cover art was a close-up photograph of Peter Steele’s asshole. 

Standout Track

“Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity” 

5. DEAD AGAIN (2007)

The final Type O Negative album before Peter Steele’s untimely passing, Dead Again is their record I’ve spent the least time with. Due to legal issues surrounding the dissolution of the Steamhammer Records that released this album, it didn’t hit streaming until a few years ago. This record offers a faster and more raw sound that harkens back to the Slow Deep and Hard era. Production choices saw the Type O Negative return to recording with acoustic drums after 3 consecutive albums utilizing programmed drums, making it the only album with Johnny Kelly’s actual playing on it.

Standout Tracks

“Halloween in Heaven”

“September Sun”

4.  BLOODY KISSES (1993)

Type O’s third studio album has the honor of being Roadrunner Records first certified gold record and propelled the band into international fandom. It marked their first foray into more the melodic goth metal sound they grew to be known for while maintaining some elements of the harsher, more schizophrenic early writing style. The legend goes the tonal shift stemmed from Peter Steele’s love of and desire to appeal to goth girls. This is alluded to in the albums most popular track, “Black No.1,” as discussed by Steele in a story from the 2009 “Top Shelf Edition” CD reissue of Bloody Kisses.

“I wrote it while I was driving a fucking garbage truck. I was waiting in line for three hours to dump 40 cubic yards of human waste at the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, and I wrote the song in my head. I’m not kidding you. And it’s about the girl I fucking slashed my wrists over. She was the ultimate goth girl, and I was poking fun at her because she was in love with herself. I actually lost the original lyrics to that song, so I had to rewrite them.” -Peter Steele

The aforementioned garbage truck he was driving was for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. It’s said Peter loved this position and was initially reluctant to tour at risk of losing it.  His nickname, “The Green Man,” refers to the all green uniform he wore while working there. 

Standout Tracks

“Black No.1”

“Christian Woman”

3.  LIFE IS KILLING ME (2003)

This album confused the hell out of me as a teenager. I’d come to identify Type O predominantly for their slow heavy sound and was surprised to hear hardcore influences on display. Songs like, “I Don’t Want To Be Me,” were undeniably good but not ones that immediately resonated strongly with me. More than any other album in discography, Life is Killing Me has changed positions in the rankings with each repeat.  A nighttime drive to SLC provided a subversive listening experience which finally allowed Life is Killing Me to dethrone Bloody Kisses from the number 3 slot. It’s the best sublimation of the bands thrasher roots, goth metal and ballads with matured song writing. Regrettably, the track “I Like Goils” did not age well and might turn off a lot of people off. Peter Steele had written it in response to the wave of attention received following his 1995 appearance in Playgirl, which he didn’t understand were not primarily by women but gay men. In a 2003 interview with Metalstorm.net, Peter Steele spoke on the track:

“After the Playgirl thing I did came out we did a lot of record store signings and stuff like that and a lot of times people came up with the Playgirl thing but the half of these people were men which is perfectly fine. I feel equally complemented by both men and women but some of the men could be very aggressive and I just said: “Look, men… I’m sorry. I like girls. I stick to women, okay? I’ve got five older sisters – I’m absolutely used to women so get out of my life…” I have nothing against gay people. As a matter of fact one of my sisters happens to be gay and it doesn’t make a difference to me as long as she’s happy.” -Peter Steele

It’s not a far throw from the edgelord lyrics from the Slow Deep and Hard days but coming at a time in their career that had seemed to move past that lose tendencies and comes off a homophobic without that context. In contrast the album also contains a cover “Angry Inch” from the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. When asked about it in the same interview, Peter explained:

“You definitely have to try to find it! It’s about a transvestite who gets his exchange operation. This operation is botched leaving him/her with a one inch penis after having a six inches penis before. So that’s why it’s called “Angry Inch.” It has nothing to do with “I Like Goils” – believe me! I would imagine this will sometimes be the next question. I think it is a great movie, it has a great message, too at the end: If you are gay or not, black, white, male or female – it doesn’t matter just as long as you are happy with yourself. That’s really all that matters I think.” -Peter Steele

Standout Tracks

“I Don’t Want To Be Me”

“IYDKMIGTHTKY (Gimme That)” 

2.  OCTOBER RUST (1996)

Most people’s favorite Type O record, October Rust is perhaps the best introduction for the uninitiated. It’s packed head-to-toe lush, lumbering goth metal bangers to pair with red wine and coitus. Lyrics on this album steered heavily into themes of brooding romance, love, longing and death. 

A prank lost to the streaming age, the band trolled their fans by starting this record with the track, “Bad Grounds,” that’s 38 seconds of faint noise before a spoken word that gives up the joke while introducing the record. On CD this was experienced as 20 some essentially blank tracks that made you think you got a bad disc, or in my case a bad ripped CDR. I only recently realized later the abrupt endings to several songs are a continuation of the rib. 

Standout Tracks

“Love You To Death”

“Be My Druidess”

1.  WORLD COMING DOWN (1999)

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of World Coming Down, Type O’s slowest and darkest album. It is without a doubt one my absolute favorite albums of all time. Funny enough, it took years for this album to permanently imprint in my heart.  It was my first Type O Negative album that I bought on a whim in high school.  At the time, I was far more into nu-metal and psyche rock than anything else. I guess I just wasn’t prepared to fully appreciate a 74-minute goth metal masterpiece. Type O has described World Coming Down as perhaps its most self-indulgent album seeing the band gravitate away from its sexually explicit material while leaning heavily into themes of addiction, mental health, death and mourning.  Several included interludes are named after organs depicting death from various vices. Like “Sinus” (death from cocaine, “Liver” (death from alcohol) and  “Lung” (death from smoking).

World Coming Down is the peak exhibition of the bands fusion of Black Sabbath and The Beatles into their own unique sound. Amusingly, their own fandom led to a decision to include on the album a medley, “Daytripper,” and two other Beatles songs, “If I Needed Someone” and “I Want You.”

Ignorant to the fact these are some of the most expensive works to license in the history of music, this cost the record and additional $35,000 per song.

Unfortunately, these works were written off the back of real life experiences including the passing of several family members. Steele described it as, “too strongly connected to an uncomfortable period in his life.”  This saw them rarely incorporate selections from it into their live performances.  Art coming from such a vulnerable place is like the fruit of tragedy; you have to go through absolute hell to come out the other side with introspection into the human condition. It’s understandable an artist could feel compelled to display their emotions as a form of catharsis while eventually deciding they’d rather not continue revisiting it. 

Standout Tracks

“World Coming Down”

“Everything Dies”

Peter Steele passed away April 14, 2010 from sepsis related to diverticulitis. The remaining members Josh Silver, Johnny Kelly and Kevin Hickey decided they wouldn’t continue without him. Johnny Kelly stated, “When Peter died, Type O Negative died with him.”

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